5 best Canadian basketball players ever
By Nam Tran
1. Dr. James Naismith
Dr. James Naismith may not have been a professional basketball player, but if it weren’t for his creativity and knowledge of sports, the game that you love so dearly may not have ever been invented. So he is the most important person in basketball, and thus in the first spot of this list. He also happens to be Canadian.
Naismith was born in 1861 in Almonte, Ontario. Though he was raised in Canada and did much of his schooling there, he invented the game of basketball in the United States when he was working as a physical education instructor at the YMCA International Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts.
In 1891, Naismith was tasked to create an active indoor game for students to play during the cold winter months. This was when he came up with the game of basketball. He also crafted 13 rules to go with the game (you can check them out here).
Two years after the game was created by Naismith and introduced to the students, it gained massive popularity. It began to spread throughout the world via the YMCA movement. Naismith was able to witness his invention grow and evolve throughout the years. In 1936, he got the opportunity to see his game (which changed quite a bit since its early days) being showcased internationally at the Berlin Olympic Games.
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Naismith passed away in 1939. He was inducted into the Basketball of Fame (also referred to as the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame) in 1959. He is a member of the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame, the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame and Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame as well.